Animal fertility drug could be approved within a year

Computers and trial drugs keep Clemson University start-up going

Equi-Tox founder Dee Cross demonstrates how the company uses a machine to fill syringes.

Equidone, a drug that helps fertility and blocks pesticides in fescue grass from hurting pregnant mares is only one of the drugs made at Equi-Tox. This stack of banana-flavored medicines is a triple antibiotic used to treat dogs in kennels.

Business Spotlight

Company: Equi-Tox Inc.

Address: 112 Central Road in Central

Type of business: veterinary pharmaceutical research

Number of employees: Five

Retired Clemson University professor Dee Cross has been working his way through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval process for about 12 years.

He started Equi-Tox Inc., to push the experimental drug from research to reality. The approval documentation fills at least four filing cabinets in the company's storage room. But the end might be in sight.

Mr. Cross said he expects that Equidone, a drug that blocks fescue toxicosis in mares, will receive FDA approval within the next year. The marketing blitz starts when the drug is approved, and he's partnering with companies overseas to push the drug worldwide.

Equidone, given orally 15 days before the mares give birth, blocks cellular receptors the fescue toxins normally would activate. The drug also helps the mares rebreed better by stimulating follicular growth on ovaries.

"It's a long and difficult process, clearing a drug through FDA," Mr. Cross said.

The company's manufacturing and environmental procedures have been cleared. The drug's effectiveness study is complete and being prepared for submission, leaving only a safety study remaining.

Twenty-four pregnant mares are starting on Equidone now at a research lab in Tennessee, but many veterinarians already are using the test drug on patients, Mr. Cross said.

With no alternative therapies, the FDA is under pressure to allow its use as a test drug, which has been an economic boost to the Clemson University start-up as it moves through the long and expensive approval process.

"We couldn't have done it if they hadn't allowed us to ship some as we're going through," Mr. Cross said. "That's pretty much kept us alive."

Equi-Tox has contracts with 3,600 veterinary clinics across the country that use Equidone and other products its lab mixes up the same way that many doctors prescribe trial drugs for patients who can't be helped with products already on the market.

So far, the drug has nine patented uses, mostly as a fertility treatment in other animals. It's been used in a study of rhinos in Germany and with elephants at the Smithsonian Zoo.

Equi-Tox isn't just branching out in medicines. Matt Orr, who met Mr. Cross at church, runs Equitox Computers in the same building at 112 Central Road in Central. The two-year-old side venture rehabs old Dell laptops, installing new hard drives and selling them for $500 to $700. Most of the laptops are sold on eBay, but locals are starting to discover the business as well.

"Business is really good, actually," Mr. Orr said.

Equi-Tox is one of Clemson University's best examples of technology transfer stimulating economic growth, but it won't be the last, Mr. Cross said.

He says Clemson has made significant strides since his company was formed. There's been an attitude shift and resources put in place, such as the Clemson University Research Foundation, to make it easier for professors to move their research from the lab to the marketplace.

"The university has more experience in that and more interest," Mr. Cross said. "I think you're going to see more start-up companies coming from technology transfer in the future."